All You Had To Do Was Stay
by Alycat13
Summary: A MerDer One-Shot story based on All You Had To Do Was Stay by Taylor Swift Season Two Doctor Derek Shepherd wants Meredith Grey back, post Addison's revelation, but she hasn't gotten past the lies he told her. There's a lot of trust that needs to be earned back. You were all I wanted, but not like this. Not like this.
**A Meredith and Derek Story**

 **Takes place around season 2**

 **based off the song "All You Had To Do Was Stay" by Taylor Swift**

 _People like you always want back the love they gave away  
And people like me wanna believe you when you say you've changed  
The more I think about it now the less I know  
All I know is that you drove us off the road_

 _Hey, all you had to do was stay  
Had me in the palm of your hand  
Then, why'd you had to go and lock me out when I let you in  
Hey, now you say you want it  
Back now that it's just too late  
Well, it could've been easy  
All you had to do was stay_

 _All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay_

Meredith wasn't used to opening up and letting her feelings and inner thoughts go out in the open. "I lied. I'm not out of this relationship. I'm in. I'm so in, it's humiliating, because here I am, begging…" she felt vulnerable but forced herself to continue. She had to say her piece.

 **"** Meredith," Derek started before she cut him off.

"Shut up. You say Meredith and I yell, remember?" The blonde doctor took a deep breath to calm herself. "Okay. Here it is. Your choice? It's simple. Her, or me. And I'm sure she's really great. But Derek, I love you. In a… really, really big… pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window, unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you." She could barely look him in the eye, but he had to know. "So pick _me_. Choose _me_. Love _me_."

Her heart had broken into a million tiny pieces when she found out Derek had chosen Addison. It was a pain unlike any the young doctor had ever felt before. Watching her mother pace with tears in her eyes complaining about how Richard had chosen Adele, it made sense to her now, though she wished it didn't.

He tried to make amends, oh how he tried. She wasn't sure if she could forgive him. It wasn't a small detail he had kept from her. It was a big earth shattering, heart breaking, unrepairable lie he kept from her. She knew what happened between Addison and Mark but it was too little too late at this point.

She choked down the shot of tequila Joe had placed in front of her.

It was a good thing her house was paid for because she was sure she had drank a month's worth of rent since Addison came to Seattle. Waking up for work in the morning was unbearable seeing as she had a constant hangover that didn't seem to be leaving anytime soon. She embraced it, though. The pain in her head was a good distraction from the pain in her heart.

"Meredith?" Derek called out and she froze for a brief second before darting down the hall. He caught up with her in the elevator just as the doors were closing and she cursed herself for not taking the stairs. He blocked the doors and flipped the switch to turn the elevator off.

The dull alarm faded into the background as the two former lovers stared at each other.

"I'm sorry Mer."

"So am I Derek." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the wall.

"I tried to make it work with Addison but things are so far gone between us there is nothing left to make work. I never wanted to hurt you." He told her.

"It doesn't matter if it was your intention to hurt me or not. You kept a huge secret. You should have told me that night in the bar or any other time in the two months that followed where I was too busy falling in love with you to stop and ask questions I didn't know I needed to ask." When you meet someone who isn't wearing a wedding ring it's usually safe to assume they aren't married, or so she thought.

"I won't hurt you again. That was the biggest mistake of my life, Mer. I've changed because of you and I love you more than anything in the world. I don't want to lose you."

"You already lost me Derek. When your wife came back you lost me. Then when I wanted to give you another chance you chose her over me yet again. I finally picked up the broken pieces of the mess you made and you come her spouting this crap?" Mcdreamy had Mclost it, that much Meredith Grey was sure of. "Go back to your wife _Derek_."

He couldn't stand the thought of losing the only breadth of fresh air he'd had in such a long time. "I want you, Meredith. I pick _you_ , I chose _you_. I _love you._ "

She closed her eyes so she wouldn't see the desperate look in his bright blue eyes. When she opened them he was closer

"This is what you wanted. You were the one who ended it. You can't have it all, and you made your choice. People like you always want back the love they pushed aside. But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye." Now that Doctor Shepard was no longer blocking the door she side stepped around him and flipped the switch causing the elevator to start moving again. When the doors slowly peeled open she addressed for the last time, not bothering to turn around to face him. "We could have worked through all the lies and the wife thing. I could have learned to trust you again but you chose to walk away."

"Meredith don't walk away from this."

"No. You walked away. All you had to do was stay. You were all I never knew I wanted but now you say you want it back. It's just too late for that. Go back to your _wife_ , Dr. Shepard." She didn't turn to see his expression before walking away. Meredith loved him more than she cared to admit and she wanted to take him back more than anything but he had a lot of trust to rebuild and walls to tear down.

He watched her, frozen where she left him, as she walked toward her friends who each sported a glare aimed at him. He had screwed up real bad but he was determined to win her back. She was the love of his life even if he realized it too late.

 _Here you are now, calling me up, but I don't know what to say  
I've been picking up the pieces of the mess you made  
People like you always want back the love they pushed aside  
But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye_

 _Stay, hey, all you had to do was stay  
Had me in the palm of your hand  
Then, why'd you had to go and lock me out when I let you in  
Stay, hey, now you say you want it  
Back now that it's just too late  
Well could've been easy  
All you had to do was stay_

 _All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay (Stay, stay, stay)_

 _Let me remind you this was what you wanted (Oh oh oh)  
You ended it  
You were all I wanted (Oh oh oh)  
But not like this  
Not like this  
Not like this  
Oh, all you had to do was stay_

 _Hey, all you had to do was stay  
Had me in the palm of your hand  
Then, why'd you had to go and lock me out when I let you in  
Stay, hey, now you say you want it  
Back now that it's just too late  
Well could've been easy  
All you had to do was stay_

 _Hey, all you had to do was stay  
Had me in the palm of your hand  
Then, why'd you had to go and lock me out when I let you in  
Stay, hey, now you say you want it  
Back now that it's just too late  
Well could've been easy (All you had to do was stay)  
All you had to do was stay_

 _All you had to do was stay (Oh)  
All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay  
All you had to do was stay_

 **A/N: Please Review :)**

 **All You Had To Do Was Stay by Taylor Swift off the album 1989**


End file.
